PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Becomes Highest Grossing Film Overseas in Disney History

Here’s a bit of a weird one: despite the fact that Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tidesgot shat on by the critics and boasted the weakest domestic opening weekend at the box office of any Pirates sequel, the movie is still breaking records for Disney. How you ask? Why foreigners, of course! The movie is a hit in North America, but it’s bringing in absolutely absurd amounts of money overseas, so much that the movie currently ranks as the fourth highest grossing film of all time worldwide. That’s right, the movie that made everyone sick of watching Johnny Depp prance around in eyeliner is now officially the most successful entry in the series.

Remember how you were hoping that crapfest would officially kill off the franchise? That ain’t happening. If anything, expect Disney to make more Pirates Of The Caribbean sequels than ever before. I guess the movie is only good with subtitles. Hit the jump for further details about this moneymaking juggernaut.

So far Pirates 4 has brought in $211 million in North America. That’s not bad for a movie that hasn’t even been out for a month yet. But according to THR, that’s nothing. So far On Stranger Tides has brought in an absolutely insane $695.9 million dollars overseas, bringing the box office total to a ridiculous $907.4 million. It’s officially the highest grossing film internationally in the history of Disney and now ranks fourth on the all time overseas box office charts behind only Avatar ($2 billion), Titanic ($1.2 billion), and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King ($742 million). Apparently a big reason for the inflated grosses is that unlike in the US, 3D grosses have yet to see any sort of decline overseas. In countries like Russia, China, and Brazil the little plastic glasses are more popular than ever.

At this point, it’s inevitable that the grosses for On Stranger Tides (anyone figure out what that means yet?) will cross a billion dollars and it will become the biggest moneymaker of the series. Unfortunately for film fans, mediocrity doesn’t seem to be getting any less profitable. We can probably expect this to turn into the start of a second—and at least mercifully Orlando Bloom free—Pirates trilogy. There is a chance that Johnny Depp will see the light and refuse to participate in another crappy Pirates Of The Caribbean sequel (he certainly looked bored by the material onscreen), but Disney execs were willing to break salary records to get him onboard last time and it’s hard to imagine they won’t do it again. Get ready for Pirates 5: Let’s All Buy Johnny Depp His Own Private Caribbean Island in the summer of 2013.